In summer 2014 we had one of those rare discussions at the sunny but drafty courtyard of Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB):1 The talk was chastening and stimulating at the same time. Professor Ariane Berthoin Antal has spent much of her time doing scientific work for artistic intervention in organizations. We talked about her research and people that build connections between business and art. We also talked about how fragile such connections can be and what happens if art is just used to stabilize the already existing organizational environment.

Fabian Lempa is Research Associate at Freie Universität Berlin and looks into the field of applied theatre interventions in and for companies. Applied theatre, he explains “means types of theatre that don’t usually occur in traditional theatre institutions, but rather find their way into social contexts in order to set in motion various and specific constructive processes of change.“ So when you think about a major or minor transformation in your organization applied theatre might be an option.

Over the centuries many touch points between art and business or other disciplines have been described and explored to various degrees. At Age of Artists, we deal with those connections that are reported to lead to better outcomes in business and society. This is what we have found so far: